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I'm New here and to the Veg world

Hello I'm Keri and I am 23 years old. I am so new to the veg world that I haven't taken all the meat out of my diet just yet. I am well on my way but I was told to take it slow and to make 2 meals a week vegan and one more every week after that until I am on a full vegan diet. I am not doing this on my own however my boyfriend is coming along for the ride. Meat was a big part of my life for 23 years. I grew up in a hunting family and even hunted myself. I'm not taking meat out of my diet because they love of animals or that I think it is wrong to hunt because I am ok with others doing so if that is how they feed their familes. I have found that that lifestyle is not for me anymore. I watch Forks over Knives and I want to be healthy and if that means not eating animal bi products than so be it. I have a one year daughter that I want to watch grow up and have kids and I want to be there for her when she has kids to help her. My boyfriend has heart problems and we are hoping by going on a whole foods plant based diet will help ease some of the issuses he is having. Also losing weight would be great too. After having my daughter I have not lost any of my baby weight but I have not gain any either. I have been working out and trying to eat better but nothing seemed to be working. I just could not lose weight. On top of not losing weight I was tired all the time. I know being a new mom having a baby cleaning a house is work but I should not feel this tired all the time. So with that being said I am hoping that this new lifestyle will help jump start a whole new feeling for me. I want to live my life and not watch my friends live it without me. I am 200lbs right not and 5'5" so as I get in to my new life style and make it work for the family I will keep everyone here updated how things are going. On Monday I am going to the doctor to get some blood work done and talk to him about the big change. I hope that with how well I feel and look after all of this my family will ask me how I look so good that in the end I can share all the info I have learned and help them to become healthy. I am the most worried about my dad. He has many health issuses that if he changed his diet and lifestyle like I am doing they would go away. I hope that through my actions he will change. I told him today that I am going vegan and he did not take it so well at all. He told me God put animals on the earth to be food. But in my study in the bible I found that is not the reason animals were put here. Before the flood we were to eat the herbs of the earth. It was not until after the flood when good said that flesh may eat flesh. Maybe animal proteins cause cancer because he no longer had hope for us or knew we would soon over indulge in such things and cause ourselves harm in the long run. I mean think about it for a second. The flood happened because the world was full of sin and Noah was not a great man he was a drunk and with that being the best man of his time says a lot doesn't it. So maybe by saying we could eat meat he was dooming everyone who like to over eat? One of the seven deadly sins is glutonny after all. Just food for thought.

Welcome! I hope your transition coninues to go well. Everyone has different reasons for following a plant based diet. And regardless of your motivation the result is the same - you contribute to a healthier planet by not supporting a very resource-intensive industry that contributes to global warming, is very polluting and is highly subsidized. You also show incredible generosity because the food that is raised to feed animals means there is less available and is higher priced for people - and a big portion of the world is malnourished because of this. And it goes without saying that the suffering we humans inflict on animals is greatly minimized. Granted many farmers are excellent caretakers, but not all. And when the truck comes to haul the animals to the feedlots or the slaughter house, there is nothing kind or gentle that happens to them. Sadly it's fear and suffering. And as youve already researched, a plant-based diet is incredibly healthy and disease preventing. So yes, we humans can eat meat. But what is the sense to feed food to animals first? Let's just eat it ourselves and live healthier on a healthier planet.

Your father's reaction isn't unusual. Change is hard for a lot of people. I'm sure he'll soon find through you that a vegan diet is incredibly varied and tasty. But it's hard at first to change the paradigm of having a plate with a centerpiece of meat surrounded by a starch and a vegetable. For a lot of people that's a 'corrrect' meal.

Anyway, I'm rambling too long when I really just wanted to say welcome! A couple resources you might find handy:

The China Study (book about health benefits)

This website, along with vegnews.com, theppk.com, findingvegan.com, happycow.net (and there are so many others!) I haven't tried the 30 day vegan challenge, but I hear it's good.

The vegetarian resource group ( they have some great started kits and info) virg.org

You might also want to subscribe to vegnews magazine (my fav) or vegetarian times.

And find some cookbooks that appeal to you, there are so many on amazon or in your local bookstore. I have a million and I hate to make a recommendation because there is something good about all of them!

Good luck in your transition and feel welcome to post questions and progress here!

Thank you so much. I am really glad that I made this change. At first I was a little scared because I didnt think people would take it very well. I only have a handful of vegan and vegetarian friends. But I have found that my friends are really understand I mean so understanding that they are looking up websites for me and helping me out. So its not so scary any more and after finding this website I kind of feel at home. Your welcomed has helped with that so thank you. I know its going to be a long road and I may have a few bumps here and there but I am going to do my best to stick with this. My dad said it will only last a few weeks but I dont think so at all. My boyfriend and I dont want to through anything away so right now we have meatless mondays. We still eat meat but really only because we want to eat everything we paid so much money for. Once we run out of something thats it we just wont buy more. Him and I have come to the saying its not that we cant eat that its that we choose not to wat it. By saying that it doesnt feel so bad any more.

hi keri glad your eyes have opened to the health benefits of veganism as animal food is poison for your body... what is so hard about the transition for you that you can only invision 2 meals a week being vegan?! i think any omnivore should at least be trying to eat 1 vegan meal a day... did you need some recipe suggestions? please watch Earthlings and i promise you will never have a desire to eat animal flesh and secretions as long as you live!

Hi Keri. I would like to suggest that you and your SO begin to eat more beans and legumes. Black-eyed peas, chickpeas, lentils, black beans, etc. You might already eat some of them already but they are a very important part of a veg diet. You could even prepare them in a non-veg way just to get you started. There is a woman named Trish Ross who has written a bunch of books on cooking with beans--the books are not completely vegetarian although many of the recipes are. So those might be good to start with because you can start out with some of the non-veg recipes and later transition to the veg ones.

It sounds like you want to be a vegan because of health reasons but you will feel guilty that it won't be the same with your family. You have put an imaginary roadblock in front of you. What you eat has nothing to do with others.

If you live in the same house and the meals are prepared by your mom make your own.

In the time of the Bible it was different times then. People were in need. Today we have great substitutions other resources.

I am very against eating flesh. How can the opposite of it be right in any way? Think about it.